NBA

Nets 97, Bucks 94

MILWAUKEE (AP)

Five points separated the Nets and the Bucks in their
home-and-home set, and Brooklyn came away with two straight
last-second victories.

Deron Williams scored 23 points and the Nets escaped with a
97-94 victory on Wednesday night after Milwaukee's Monta Ellis
missed a chance to tie the game with three foul shots in the final
seconds.

''We did a good job of closing the game until the very end,''
Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said. ''We made it interesting.
We got ourselves an 11-point lead and then did a poor job closing
that. It's hard to keep coming back, coming back, coming back, but
we did it.''

Williams made two free throws and a 3-pointer that gave the Nets
their biggest lead at 94-83 with 1:50 left to play. But Milwaukee
ran off an 11-2 run down the stretch and pulled to 96-94 with 6.9
seconds left on two layup by Brandon Jennings.

Gerald Wallace inbounded to Williams, but Jennings was draped
over the point guard's right side. The contact shook the ball loose
and it appeared to hit Williams' foot before rolling out of bounds.
After review, the Nets had possession. Williams was fouled and made
one of two free throws to make it 97-94 with 3.4 seconds left.

Williams then fouled Ellis on a hurried 3.

''He turned and lost his footing and kind of flopped,'' Williams
said. ''If I pushed him, I definitely didn't push enough for him to
go flying out of bounds like that. It worked out in the end. Let's
say I planned it. I knew he was going to miss the free
throws.''

Ellis missed the first two shots, and intentionally missed the
third.

''Every game isn't going to be pretty,'' Williams said. ''You
are going to have these grind it out games. We got down and we are
able to fight back and keep our composure and get a win.''

It was the Nets' fourth consecutive win, all against teams
currently holding a playoff spot. With the Knicks losing to Indiana
125-91, the Nets pulled to within one game of first-place New York
in the Atlantic Division.

Sanders returned to the Bucks' starting lineup Tuesday after
missing four games with a lower back contusion.

''Last night, we didn't have the lead. We had to fight back,''
Sanders said of the Nets' victory Tuesday night, when Joe Johnson
hit a jumper just before time expired to win it in Brooklyn.
Johnson also forced the extra session with a tying 3-pointer as
regulation wound down.

''Tonight, I think fatigue caught up to us a little bit, but I'm
not going to blame it on that,'' Sanders said.

Williams, who had 19 points and nine assists Tuesday after
sitting out the previous two games with inflammation in his ankles,
played 33 minutes. He had eight assist and one steal.

The Nets took advantage of the Bucks' inability to hit shots in
the fourth quarter with a 19-5 run.

Williams' 3 at 1:50 gave Brooklyn its biggest lead at 94-83
lead. The Bucks held the Nets scoreless for the next 1:35.

The Nets used a 16-1 run spanning the third and fourth quarters
and took the lead 77-76 on Blatche's layup with 10:11 left to play
and MarShon Brooks made two free throws to push the lead to
79-76.

Ellis that stopped a Bucks' scoring drought that lasted a little
less than seven minutes. He made one of two free throws with 8:11
to go, but Johnson hit a jumper to put Brooklyn up by four.

The Nets trailed 54-42 at the half, but used a 7-0 run in the
third quarter to pull to 66-61 with 4:25 left. Williams made a 3
and Watson a layup before Wallace's dunk off a miss by Jennings,
who was nine of 10 until Brook Lopez blocked his shot.

The Bucks were 21 of 34 (61.8 percent) the first half while the
Nets struggled and made 15 of 46 shots (32.6 percent).

Jennings had 18 points before the break, making all seven of his
shots, and seven assists. Ersan Ilyasova had 10 points and seven of
Milwaukee's 23 rebounds.

NOTES: Williams said that he would be getting cortisone shots
Thursday in his ailing ankles. ... Sanders extended his NBA lead to
19 games with four or more blocks in a game. ... Before the
tip-off, there was a moment of silence in remembrance of the owner
of the Los Angeles Lakers, Jerry Buss, who died Monday. ... The
Nets improved to (19-8) under interim coach Carlesimo, the
second-best start under any of their previous 21 coaches. Lawrence
Frank's team started 19-6 in 2003-04. ... The Nets are 8-0 when
Watson scores 11 or more points. ... The Nets have won consecutive
games against the Bucks for the first time since the 2008-09
season.

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